


My Paladin

by amywinchester



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Happy Birthday Keith!, Keith (Voltron)-centric, keith kogone love, my baby doesn't know how to react to being wanted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 06:32:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16383110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amywinchester/pseuds/amywinchester
Summary: What happens when a Paladin is bonded with two Lions at the same time? Well usually nothing. Now when said Paladin is in danger? Both Lions come to save their Paladin. Unfortunately, neither is willing to give up their claim on Keith, and both Lions refuses to let the other to try to help Keith when hes in jeopardy.





	My Paladin

**Author's Note:**

> Okay this idea came out of nowhere and I shared it with some friends on discord and TheAsianMc and I were just talking about what could happen for fun and it gave me motivation to write this and also thank you for that suggestion as well on what to do when I was torn between ideas! Also my first fic I have written in YEARS so probably won’t be the greatest. This is purely self indulgent. Lastly thank you adverbialstarlight and Silvermoon for beta reading this.

Keith was the only one that could do this. Deciding to pilot a rebel craft since Matt needed some assistance with a mission that required stealth. Out of all of the Paladins and the majority of the rebels--considering most were greenhorns recently freed from Galra control--Keith had the most experience in that department thanks to his time with Blades. He also learned how to sneak out past curfew from Garrison days to either breathe the fresh air under the stars or to spend time with his closest friends and the those he considered his brothers, like Matt and Shiro.

 

So yeah, Keith had the most experience with sneaking around, and sadly Black was too conspicuous for this so he had left him behind. And since Pidge was out on a mission of her own with Green, her cloaking mode was unavailable, leaving Keith in a less conspicuous rebel ship that was built for speed.

 

The mission was to steal a shipment of experimental quintessence, that could potentially be a deadly weapon. However, it was not heavily guarded according to the intel the rebels had received. The Galra General that was in charge wanted to keep this asset low profile and hidden in plain sight. The Blades had confirmed this as well from their own spies.

 

The only problem was the mission was a set up. Someone from the inside had betrayed them and there was an ambush lying in wait for them. They had been waiting behind some debri for hours.

 

Once Keith and the other craft were close the fighters opened fire. The first shot hit Keith. Since he hadn't been expecting it, the hit sent the leader of Voltron jerking forward. He narrowed his eyes and brought up communications.

 

“Matt, get the other rebels out of here. These things are built for speed not taking heavy fire,” he said as he broke formation and started firing back on the ship. “I’ll hold them off while you and the rebels get out of here. This mission needs to be aborted, they probably alerted the base that we are coming if they don’t know already,” he said, steering the ship sideways to dodge both fire and large debri.

 

“What do you mean know already?” Matt asked, surprised.

 

“Think about it. With this many ships waiting here, they knew we were coming.” Keith said as he watched two other rebel ships nearly collide, panicked because of their inexperience in combat. They were pilfers, not fighters. “Matt get the rebels out of here now.” “What about you?” Matt asked stubbornly, not wanting to leave him with that many ships on his own.

 

“I’ve faced worse than this before. And besides, the rebels aren’t used to combat so they need to go now!” Keith said as he saw one of the Galra ships nearly shoot one of the rebels down.

 

Matt ground his teeth together, not liking this one bit. “Fine. But if you die on me, Keith Kogane, I am bringing you back and killing you myself.” Matt said while leading the rebels out of there while also sending a message to the Blades. Hoping one of them was close to give Keith assistance. He did not want to leave his friend with that many fighters on his own.

 

Keith couldn’t help but smile at Matt’s words. “Of course, Mattie, wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said as a Galra fighter chased him. Considering how Keith was navigating through the debri he should have crashed into it. And had it been anyone else they probably would have. However, since this was Keith and he currently was heading straight towards a piece of rubble with his ship obstructing the fighters view of it. Keith continued flying towards it head on until the very last possible tick. Dodging the fragments and allowing the fighter to crash into it. Leaving six fighters left for Keith to deal with.

 

Well, three out of six right now since half of them where focusing on the escaping rebels at the moment.

 

“Matt, watch your six!” Keith yelled, just in time for Matt to dodge and be able to return open fire, taking out one of the wings of the fighter and making it difficult to stabilize its flight especially with the debri around them. It made Keith grateful for their days of sneaking into the simulators at the Garrison to improve their skills, even if Matt had been better at communications than piloting at the time. He was also extremely thankful for the skills Matt had picked up with his time with the rebels. His flying had evidently improved.  

 

“Matt, test those engines. Use the hyper speed if you have to!”

 

“But-“

 

“Just do it! That's an order!” Keith said, cutting him off. They couldn’t afford to lose more fighters in this war. They had had a momentous loss from Naxzela. Even though it had been a while since then. It was significant enough for the effects to still be felt; despite the amount of time that had passed and the monumental victory it brought them. They couldn’t afford to lose more than they already had. And Keith didn’t want to lose his friend again, either, if he could help it.

 

Matt narrows his eyes, not expecting Keith to pull that card here. The leadership card. He should have known better. Authority normally didn’t mean shit to Keith, since you had to earn his respect no matter what your status was. But of course, his self sacrificing stubborn pain in the ass best friend would play that card to save his teammates. Even if he didn’t make it out alive himself. “Like I said, Kogane, I will kill you myself if you die,” he retorted as he and the other rebels went into hyper speed to make their escape. While doing so the damaged Galra fighter took shots where the rebel craft had been moments ago and Keith mentally sighed in relief, dodging shots from two fighters flying after him.

 

Unfortunately, a fighter that was in front of him fired at that exact moment-- having memorized his previous maneuvers. The blast hit Keith’s ship, sending it spinning out of control. He desperately tried to stabilize the ship, while avoiding crashing into debri. He couldn’t afford to have this ship crash, especially with this many fighters around him. He really would be quiznacked then.

 

The fighters were merciless in their attacks, continuing to fire while he tried to even out his ship. Keith was able gain partial control of the ship in time to maneuver upwards and towards the left, diverting a shot aimed for him to destroy another fighter. However, before he conducted the maneuver he hadn’t calculated for the previously damaged Galra fighter to lose control.That ship went into a downwards spiral while opening fire on Keith, the blast hitting his ship before they crashed into each other--destroying both ships.

 

When Keith saw the other fighter spin out of control, he knew he wouldn’t be able to regain control in time to avoid the collision. He had mere ticks to get out. Though Keith wasn't thrilled by this course of action, his best chance for survival was to abandon ship. So he ejected himself.

 

Unfortunately, he had been too close to the exploding ships. The explosion itself threw him a decent distance and parts of both ships smacked into Keith. Damaging the armor and slashing through his side opening a gash here. Additionally, he was temporarily knocked out, leaving the young Paladin floating through space-helpless.

 

At the exact moment Keith lost consciousness, two Lions became aware that he was in danger. While one woke up in the Castle of Lions on his own, opening the bay doors up by its force of will to fly to its current Paladin, bringing out its wings to get to him as fast as possible. The other Lion was a decent distance away doing training exercises with some of the other Lions. When suddenly, she stopped listening to her Paladin. She took control herself and turned around in the direction of Keith, causing her current Paladin to cry out in confusion.

 

“What, Red?! What's wrong?!” Lance screamed out as he tried to regain control of his Lion.

 

“Lance?! What’s wrong buddy?” Hunk shrieked in concern.

 

“I don't know! Red isn't listening to me,” he replied as Red continued to ignore his commands. He muttered some curses in Spanish.

 

But it was futile. Once Red made up her mind, there was no way you could change it. She was a Lion on a mission, saving her cub from danger. Again.

 

Being the fastest of the Lions, she arrived at the same time as Black even though she had been further away. They crashed into each other headon, causing both lions to fly backwards into one of the Galra ships searching for Keith.

 

Their appearance got bugged eyes looks of shock from the remaining Galra pilots, and even a few curses. A few came from Lance as well, having felt the brunt of the collision.

 

The sound of the Lions’ crash is what brought Keith back to consciousness. He blinked in surprise and wondered if he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing or if he was hallucinating; either due to the loss of oxygen because of the tear in his suit and or because of the head trauma the blood on his forehead was indicating.

 

There was no way both Black and Red could be here, right? He was no longer Red’s Paladin, despite wearing the red armor for her still. He had to be hallucinating especially since they appeared to be fighting the other. Yep, total hallucation despite the sounds of metal crashing against metal.

 

Meanwhile, Lance was screaming at Red and Black to stop, having no idea why they were fighting. But it was pointless, neither were listening to him as they swiped at each others’ face with their claws. All of the Paladins could feel something was wrong in the bond with their Lions. They just weren't exactly sure what. But there was major anxiety emitting from their Lions. Since the Leader of the Lions and his right hand were fighting one another, and they didn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.

 

Allura brought up a video conference with Lance, hoping he could enlighten them on what was happening since he had been in Red when she had flown off. “Lance what is going on? The Lions...they feel disquiet.”

 

“I don't know, Allura. Red and Black crashed into one another and then just started fighting, and Red isn’t listening to me. I can’t get her to stop.”

 

“You don't think she’s fighting Black for leadership, do you?” Hunk asked anxiously.

 

“No Hunk, I don’t think that's what Red is doing…” Lance said. His systems suddenly beeped, picking something up on the scanners and he looked to see what it was, thinking it was probably more Galra ships that the Lions were mostly ignoring for some reason “Wait, is that MULLET?!?”

 

“Keith?” everyone asked, not understanding what Lance was going on about. “Yes, Keith!” he cried out “He's here floating out in the middle of space.”

 

There was silence for a couple ticks, the only sounds coming from the Lions fighting as the Paladins tried to take this in. Both Lions came to save the same Paladin, one its former Paladin, the other its current. This was...unexpected. Sure, Black had been bonded with two Paladins before that were alive at the same time. And yes, the Paladins still had to deal with that--but now it was with three Lions instead of one--nevertheless this current situation was one thing they hadn’t counted on. Two Lions, bonded to the same Paladin at the same time and neither willing to give up their claim on him especially when said Paladin was in danger. The pair of them coming to save him and seeming willing to fight to the death on who the Paladin belonged to instead of working together to save him. Except for when it appeared a Galra fighter was getting too close to where Keith was, instead of fighting the Lions would turn their attention to said ship and either try to destroy it or have it move away from Keith’s location.

 

“Well this is abrupt,” Allura finally said.

 

“Is it really though?” Pidge asked. “Remember how Black wasn’t ready to let go of Zarkon as its true Paladin for a long time?” Pidge was silent for a moment before she continued. “Keith had to prove his worth to both Lions, and Red is the most capricious of all the Lions. It was only a matter of time before she stopped listening to Lance and went back to Keith.”

 

“HEY!” Lance exclaimed, offended.

 

“Just pointing out what we know from past experience,” she replied as Lance grumbled in irritation. It was quickly cut off as he was thrown backwards in the Lion as she went spinning into some debris from Black, both kicking Red and smacking her with his metal tail.

 

“Okay this is getting old fast,” Lance said, worried they would start getting serious fighting one another. He was concerned about them focusing their cannon fire and blades on each other instead of the remaining Galra ships.

 

While the fighting was going on, Keith had finally decided he was not hallucinating. He could feel the heat from the fire of the Lion’s cannons, which were aimed at the Galra ships that were getting too close to him for both his and the Lions’ comfort. Though he did have to admit he was confused as to why both Lions were here; fighting over him. It didn't make any sense. But in his bond with both he could feel them shouting out, “ **_MY SON! NO MY PALADIN! NO MINE! MINE! MINE!”_ ** over and over again to one another.

 

Though that confusion started to turn into irritation. Keith was floating out in the middle of space with a hole in his suit, a bleeding head wound, and worried about the oxygen leaking out while the Lions were literally cat fighting over him in some sort of custody battle, both seeing him as their cub.

 

He reached out to both Lions with the bond, urging them to stop. It wasn’t exactly the best time to be doing this. They paused. But once Black started to get close to Keith, Red tackled him, sending him crashing downwards and the fight started once again.

 

Keith groaned loudly and wondered how long the lions were going to continue this. He had a feeling he would either pass out from lack of oxygen or blood loss before either of them finally got to him at this rate.

 

As Red and Black fought for Keith, who was trying to calm them down, Lance struggled to keep his lunch down; as he watched the extremity of the attacks without being fatal. None of them noticed as a new ship appeared. It took out the remaining Galra ships that were still intact.

 

The pilot didn’t want to risk the ship being destroyed by either Lion so they stopped a fair distance away from where the scanners had picked up Keith. The pilot exited the ship thinking the Lions wouldn’t see them ash a threat. Hoping the Lions would recognize them as an ally as they moved through the debri towards Keith, if not failing to detect them at all. Since the ship itself would most likely be perceived as more of a potential threat then the lone pilot themselves. The pilot was moving through the debri fairly quickly with the assistance of their jetpack.

 

Thankfully for the pilot, the Lions had not detected them as a threat so they were able to get to Keith safely. He was startled when the pilot placed their hand on his shoulder and he turned around with his blade out, ready to attack until Keith realized who it was.

  
“Mom?” he asked surprised. “What? How?” he asked while trying to get his thoughts together “What are you doing here? How did you know to come here?”

 

“Matt sent a message out to the Blades,” Krolia said as she wrapped her arms around her son, holding him close in her arms as they made way back to her ship. “He was worried about you being on your own and thought you could use back up. Seems he was right,” she replied while trying to hide her concern. She could tell he was injured and had been stranded despite two Lions being right by him. However, the Lions didn’t seem to be in a position to save him at the moment--engaged in some type of dispute. Krolia had a good guess as to what it was about, not that she didn’t understand where they were coming from. She too would have fought both Lions herself if they had tried to take Keith from her, but now wasn’t exactly the time to do it since he was injured. They had to put their differences and pride aside for a moment and do what was best for Keith.

 

Keith, however, caught her worry and tried to give her a reassuring smile that **_didn’t_** look forced or tight **_at all._** “I’m fine mom. Nothing to worry about. I’ve had flu shots and paper cuts far worse than this.” Krolia just gave him an unconvinced look. Despite appreciating the Galra attitude towards this, she wanted her son to tell her what was wrong. She wanted to be there when he was hurting so she could be there to help him and take care of him when he needed someone the most. Even though, she knew it wasn’t in his personality to ask for help. Since he often would minimize things when it came to himself. Like his health and his needs mostly due to his childhood teaching not to be a **_nuisance_** while in the system. Regardless, she couldn't help herself to hold onto the hope that he would rely on her when he needed aid.

 

Krolia quickly moved them back to her ship and did a quick assessment of what his injuries were making sure nothing was too serious that had to be treated immediately. Thankfully it was things Krolia could handle with the supplies she had here on the ship to treat her son’s injuries before he could receive proper medical treatment and get into a healing pod.

 

Once she did what she could she made Keith was comfortable as she could. With him only half heartedly grumbling about her fussing over him before she got back in the pilot's seat. She quickly headed to a Blade base that wasn’t too far away. She brought up a video conference with Matt to let him know Keith was safe. He wasn't convinced until he saw Keith was fine himself.

 

“Keith! You're okay!” he cried out in relief once he saw him

  
“Yea Matt I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

 

Matt gave him a glare “Really want to go there with me Kogane?”

 

Keith realized that mistake as soon as the words left his lips. He knew his mom saw **some** of the things he had done in the past and would probably eventually do in the future but he didn't want her to know **_EVERYTHING_ **. And as fun and easy going as his adorkable best friend was he was still pissed at him for that near death experience from Naxzela. Especially since Keith had made him swear not to tell the others and he was willing to bet he was about to open that can of worms with his mom right about now. And he did not want to deal with that conversation of what the Quiznak did you do?!?! He still wasn't used to the mom voice yet. He was just getting used to her fretting and worrying over him.

 

“Oh Matt, mom’s got to fly between these two black holes and massive star to get to the base so I can get medical treatment! We are going to lose you!” He conveyed quickly and cut off the call and disconnected communications so Matt wouldn't be able to call back for awhile.

 

Krolia just raised an eyebrow at Keith and filed that to either recon later or get Matt or some of others to spill as she headed towards the base.

 

Meanwhile, the Lions had suddenly stopped fighting. Both of them reached out with their bonds and saw Keith was longer there. Both freaked out for a moment thinking he was captured since they could tell he was alive. Although they didn't sense any fear from him and his pain seemed to have eased a bit. Keith’s feelings showed he felt safe.

 

Now, once both had determined he was safe they started blaming the other for losing Keith and not noticing he was gone sooner. Despite both of them wanting to continue the fight to prevent the other from getting Keith, they themselves wanted to get to Keith more. So they both flew as fast as they could to the rebel base while Lance was thanking every star and planet in the galaxy that the Lions had stopped fighting for the moment.

 

Simultaneously at the Blade base Keith had just stepped out of a healing pod with Krolia there to catch him as he came out since she knew one of the side effects was horrible balance. The moment she caught him alarms for the base started going off putting everyone on high alert. Keith tensed up and was ready for a fight despite the condition he was currently in. He raised his blade in its true form ready for the worst, as Krolia moved her kit protectively behind her ready to take on the whole quiznaking galaxy; ready to tear each and every single species apart for him.

 

Just as soon as she had moved Keith behind her there was two large thuds shaking the entire base and causing both mother and son to jump and turn towards the direction it had came from. Which conveniently, was towards a window looking outside to where they saw both Lions. Black they saw first since he was directly in front of the window with his face pressed directly against it. They saw Red second only because she looked like she was ready to attempt bursting through the base a second time to get to Keith. While the Blades who recovered from their astonishment were trying to stop her. They did not want a repeat of what they went through during Keith’s trials.

 

Keith resisted the urge to face palm as he reaches out to Red both mentally and out loud “Red stop. I’m fine. I’m safe. No need to crash in here and give the Blades a heart attack. And besides I would like to **_try_ ** to avoid a scolding from Kolivan about this.”

 

It took some coaxing but Red finally calmed down and stopped. She landed on the base not planning on moving anytime soon, no matter what any of the Blades or Lance did. She wasn’t leaving her cub until she was sure he was okay and safe with her own eyes which would probably be awhile. Considering Kolivan would probably find a way to ground Keith for this incident despite him being the leader of Voltron.

 

Keith’s eyebrows scrunch up irritated after he had put his blade away “I don’t understand why both of them did this. Or why they are acting like this,”he uttered with a sigh.

 

Krolia gives a soft fond smile as she strokes her son’s cheek. “Oh Keith,” she replied softly. “If any harm came to you nothing and no one would stop me from getting to you, not even the Lions. I would move heaven and earth for you and burn this entire galaxy, just to keep you safe. You have seen how fiercely we Galra love and have experienced it yourself first hand. Now, just imagine how it is for the Lions themselves. Especially, since both of them see you as their kit. Their Paladin. Nothing and no one will stop them. Not even each other.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday Keith!!!


End file.
